Strontium isotopes as tracers of water-rocks interactions, mixing processes and residence time indicator of groundwater within the granite-carbonate coastal aquifer of Bonifacio (Corsica, France)
Résumé
This study aims at identifying the water-rock interactions and mixing rates within a complex granite-carbonate
coastal aquifer under high touristic pressure. Investigations have been carried out within the coastal aquifer of
Bonifacio (southern Corsica, France) mainly composed of continental granitic weathering products and marine
calcarenite sediments filling a granitic depression. A multi-tracer approach combining physico-chemical parameters,
major ions, selected trace elements, stable isotopes of the water molecule and 87Sr/86Sr ratios measurements
is undertaken for 20 groundwater samples during the low water period in November 2014. 5 rock
samples of the sedimentary deposits and surrounding granites are also analysed. First, the water-rock interactions
processes governing the groundwater mineralization are described in order to fix the hydrogeochemical
background. Secondly, the flow conditions are refined through the quantification of inter aquifer levels mixing,
and thirdly, the kinetics of water-rock interaction based on groundwater residence time from a previous study
using CFCs and SF6 are quantified for the two main flow lines. A regional contrast in the groundwater recharge
altitude allowed the oxygene-18 to be useful combinedwith the 87Sr/86Sr ratios to differentiate the groundwater
origins and to compute the mixing rates, revealing the real extension of the watershed and the availability of the
resource. The results also highlight a very good correlation between the groundwater residence time and the
spatial evolution of 87Sr/86Sr ratios, allowingwater-rock interaction kinetics to be defined empirically for the two
main flowlines through the calcarenites. These results demonstrate the efficiency of strontiumisotopes as tracers
of water-rock interaction kinetics and by extension their relevance as a proxy of groundwater residence time,
fundamental parameter documenting the long term sustainability of the hydrosystem.